Jesus did not come to admit sinners to Paradise, for that would repeat the original problem of the garden in Eden. Jesus came to change sinners into righteous people so they can inherit eternal life, Paradise, and all the other wonders and responsibilities that await us in the future.

Jesus did not come to take the violent man to Heaven, He came to make the violent man peaceful and gentle.

Jesus did not come to take the fornicator to Heaven, He came to make the fornicator morally pure. The Lord Jesus came to put Paradise in us.

But didn't Jesus state that morally unclean people would enter the Kingdom ahead of the self-righteous? Yes, He did. Entering the Kingdom means that we have been delivered from moral impurity. Sometimes the fornicators and the robbers enter the Kingdom ahead of the religious people because the sinners see their need for Jesus, for His forgiving, cleansing authority and power. No individual is as spiritually bankrupt as he or she who sees no need of repentance and deliverance from worldliness, lust, and self-seeking.

The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Heaven is a place. The Kingdom of God is a relationship to God through Christ.

Today's Christian doctrine is so confused, so erroneous, that making one's eternal home in the spirit Paradise is presented as the goal of redemption.

In actuality the goal of salvation presented in the Scriptures is eternal life in the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God is destined to be established on the earth.

The Lord Jesus did not come to change what we reap but what we sow. People always will reap what they sow. If we desire to enter eternal life in the Kingdom of God we must sow righteousness. This basic law of the Kingdom can never be done away, not by grace, not by mercy, not by any other means. God does not change!

Salvation is moral transformation. This is what salvation is. It has no reference to Heaven. The statement "salvation is moral transformation" does not mean if we behave righteously we will be saved. It means, rather, that the righteous behavior itself is the salvation.

The purpose of salvation is not that we go to Heaven but that we fulfill the many needs that God has, such as a temple for Himself, a bride for the Lamb, righteous priests and rulers to govern the nations of the saved, and several other roles and services. None of these roles and services can be performed completely and perfectly by a human being until he or she has been changed into the moral image of the Lord Jesus and brought into complete, restful union with the Father through Christ.

Notice how redemption is described by the Holy Spirit through the father of John the Baptist:

That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. (Luke 1:74,75)

The above prophetic declaration could not be improved as a definition of the Christian redemption.

"Being delivered out of the hand of our enemies."

"Might serve him without fear."

"In holiness and righteousness before him."

"All the days of our life."

This is salvation. This is redemption. It has nothing to do with going to Heaven. In fact, the earth and its peoples will be the primary beneficiaries of the salvation created in the elect.

To be continued.